Hip restaurants follow skyscrapers to 57th Street

Residential skyscrapers aren’t the only things invading 57th Street. Now high-end restaurants are making a push, targeting billionaires and foodies alike.

The two most recent restaurants to land on the Midtown street are the Kingside, an American eatery at 124 West 57th Street, and the Wayfarer, a seafood-centric dining room at 101 West 57th Street.

“We wanted to create something that people felt comfortable with, that has that downtown vibe,” Scott Gerber of the Gerber Group, which owns Kingside, the New American restaurant on the street level of the Viceroy New York hotel, told the New York Daily News. “The Roof feels like it’s a luxury yacht in the clouds, and the terrace views of the park are spectacular, but you’d feel comfortable going in jeans and a T-shirt,” Gerber added.

Last year, Betony opened the east side of 57th Street and Sixth Avenue and has since become a finalist for a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant.

“When we decided to come up here a lot of people were like, ‘Where are you going? To 57th St.? Is that in Bushwick?’” Bryce Shuman, the executive chef at Betony, who met general manager Eamon Rockey while the two were working at Eleven Madison Park.

“I’m from North Carolina, and the vision I had growing up was the New York of skyscrapers, Broadway and Carnegie Hall, Central Park, taxi cabs and Fifth Ave. shopping,” Shuman added. “It was almost like an honor to get this opportunity to be in the center of that.” [NYDN] – Christopher Cameron